Oiiiii… Here's the next chapter~~ Enjoooyyyyyyy~~~ And be glad I'm still alive, where I'm at it's like a sauna with the monsoon here. Oh btw new to this concept of reminding people that I don't own any of these cuties okay? xD They were all created by Mashima as you guys know and are pretty much here for mainly Gajeel and Levy~. So I might as well say this once just to get this outta my neck and in casssseee! ONLY ONCE LOL
Chapter 3
Levy widened her eyes from hearing the sincerity in Gajeel's voice when he spoken those magic words. "Only for me?" she kept thinking over and over with a bright red flush was she mindlessly held the candles while Gajeel turned around and went back to sit. She nearly became a candle herself with how hot her face had gone and she could have easily lit up the place.
"W…Well! It's not like you have a choice in the beginning, I did hire you for a reason…" she mumbled loud enough for him to hear as she avoided the stare that Gajeel had, trying not to give him the pleasure of what he just caused.
Gajeel on the other hand, felt rather good as to what he said, he laughed from shorty's reaction to his words with a pleasing smirk. He didn't bother replying as this was enough for him anyway.
Levy was standing there dumbfounded trying to think of something else to say again while she lit the candles and put them on a plate so that they wouldn't drip over as she neared Gajeel.
"Come on, I'll show you your room, please try to be clean in there, you will be living here so wouldn't you like it clean too?" She said as she neared the door and opened it.
The bed was barely big enough for Gajeel as it had one desk next to it and drawer to hold his belongings. Gajeel just tossed his bag to the side of the bed as he neared the mattress, sitting on its edge. The room was clean for being a guest room, he could tell it was cleaned not that long ago.
"My room is across from you in case you need to ask me something, or if something comes up. I usually stay in there doing some work. Bathroom is nearby too, up the hall." She said as she set the candle on top of the small table near the bed with a small box of matches.
"Well good night, Gajeel, be up by breakfast" she sighed as she began to walk out the room and got the edge of the door to close it.
"Night shrimp" Gajeel grunted as he began to remove his shirt over his head, showing Levy a nice glimpse of his abdomen before she closed the door. Levy turned cherry red again as she closed the door only thinking, he was RIPPED. She couldn't get the thought out of her head as she opened her door to her bedroom and closed it shut while doing a really quiet, raspy,
"HEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!" as she neared her bed in the dark using only the moonlight that peered from her end to see. She quickly slipped into her sleepwear as she sat down, rotated on her back straight on her bed, and looked at the ceiling. She turned and tossed quite a bit until she got comfortable with her sheets, having majority of the blanket between her legs and arms as she held it near her face. She had closed her eyes thinking how crazy a man just made her felt with just meeting him. "Is this love at first sight? Like in the books I read? No…" was the last thought before she went to sleep after her very hectic day. After all she nearly got raped and hired a very… 'Interesting' man…
Unfortunately for Levy the next morning is that she couldn't sleep in. No matter what happened, her mind had a clock that always woke her up before she wanted to wake up. Her job as a scribe assistant changed recently. Instead of going in the morning, she now went over at noon. Levy had woken up before the sun even came up, she groaned loudly, wanting to sleep in but couldn't because her head and eyes wouldn't let her, she already was wide awake and it was around 6 am.
"Guuhhh….. I have nothing else but to get breakfast ready I guess…." She said sitting up on her bed. She looked at herself in her sleeping gown, not wanting to change her clothing at all, it was morning, and it wasn't time for that yet. Plus no one can really see anything though the thing anyway. She left her bedroom barefooted, trying not to wake up Gajeel across from her. She could hear him silently snore from his side once in a while as she smiled a bit.
"What to make, what to make…" Levy repeated walking over to the kitchen, seeing what she still had there. She had spent a great deal of time thinking instead of actually cooking. All the big stuff was over where the horse was at, like rice and beans. She didn't think they would need rice and beans at the moment, that's probably what she will do later. She walked over to the basket of eggs she had bought a day before Gajeel had arrived; they were still fresh and last their usual time, around 2 weeks. She had some vegetables left from yesterday and thought of just making an omelet or scramble it up. She began to prepare everything up, starting the fire in the pit on the corner. She kept looking around to see what else to cook, she wished a bit things were a bit closer to convenience. Sometimes there were cravings that she couldn't quite get to every day since things either spoiled or the market was too far away, hence why she went once a week.
Gajeel was slowly waking up after Levy an hour later with a smell of eggs wafting through the door. He woke up a lot better than before on the streets, now that he and a bed and got the good side of the house as he guessed since the sun didn't hit him hard. It was a more of a slow dim light, gentle, soothing… like... STOP. Gajeel knew he was about to get onto a subject that was a bit too good to be true for him. He sighed and sat up from his bed, with a growling stomach as he put back his pants and putting on his shirt on the way. He noticed how withered they were, he needed to get some new ones later once he got enough money.
He looked to the side where the kitchen was, Levy had just finished cooking what they were going to eat. It was and rough omelet since the egg stuck to the pan. Oil was a luxury these days, it would be amazing to get some one of these days, but it wasn't of much importance, all they needed was food, nothing fancy.
"Mornin' shorty!" Gajeel said as he walked to the chair he sat in the other night. He couldn't but help but look her up and down a bit, trying not to let her see him while she had her back turned away from him. She looked nice with the night gown; it was loose on the top, showing a big of her cleavage but hugged her body a lot on the curves that mattered, her ass.
"Sorry, but I don't think there is anyone in this house named shorty. There is someone named Levy though…" Levy replied with a roll of her eyes as she went over with two plates of omelet mixed with veggies, both had a large amount of them and steam still rolling off. She handed off one of the plates to Gajeel and set down hers. Gajeel smirked; she was a very cheeky person to say something like that to him.
"I wouldn't be surprised if there was someone named Idiot-Metal-Head here though…" she said with a small giggle and smile as she went back to get their drinks of water as well as some loaves of bread, hearing Gajeel scoff from her comment, right when she turned back, she saw a very annoyed look on Gajeel's face,
"Tch! Who woulda known such an innocent lookin' woman had a smart-ass movin' mouth!" he then proceeded to shove mouthfuls of food into his mouth like no tomorrow again watching Levy sit down and eat her meal as well. He couldn't think of a good enough come back unless it had to be physical like a tackle… or a kiss on those tender lips to shut her up... Gajeel shook his head quickly to get off the slight red smudges on his cheeks go away, what was he thinking?
Levy just proceeded to chuckle gently at his comment, giving him a smile as they both continued to eat their breakfast after that. Thirty minutes or so, they both finished their meals and Levy had put back the plates and washed them, putting them back where they used to be before being used and walked back to the table.
"Well I guess it's time to talk about your jobs in this house, since you gave me an idea of what you did… Maybe make a small farm and clean up the yard?" she said with a hand on her chin and the other crossed under, thinking of what else. "Anything else? I have a bit of money saved up for this. It would make stuff here a lot easier!"
"Not a bad idea… Is it fine if I could make a small place or corner to some place here into another fireplace? I can get into metal works to get an extra jewel… Other than that, there ain't anythin' I can't handle." Gajeel nodded, pleased to the tasks that had been set.
"Oh by all means that's fine, as long as you do it, and I will only be able to help pay a bit when it comes to that one. Now, we shall discuss home rules. Let's start off with what you might have a guess some are, to make things a bit quicker…"
"House rules? I feel like I'm back at home again." Gajeel crossed his arms, slumped on his chair, and put a leg over the other.
"Well, it this place began to be your house since yesterday when I hired you Gajeel." Levy said with a small laugh but then giving him a glare. "Come on now, don't have all day!" she demanded.
"Yeesh, well don't make a mess… errr… don't destroy… ask before you do something in case…don't spend carelessly…" Gajeel sighed, "Annndd I think that's all I know shorty."
"Okay, looks like you know some of the basics. Which I say is good enough. But let me clarify some main points, specifically your gender type of rules. Don't bring in woman in here that I don't know and have sexual interactions with them in my home. I don't want to be awake all night hearing goats screaming. Don't spend on something that isn't worth it. Like beer and woman, you can get beer sometimes, woman sometimes, but remember the other rule!" she said stretching and then proceeded to stand up. "Understood?"
"Damn woman, that's fine. I don't really get with woman either way; I don't wanna get sick in these times. It's gonna be hard on the booze ya hear!" He said with a grunt as he watched her get up from her seat.
"What time ya get to work?" He asked watching her head her way to her bedroom. Levy turned her head as he bit her hand on the corner of the hallway and stopped there.
"At noon, why?" she said raising a brow.
"Cuz I don't want ya gettin' jumped again like yesterday that's why. It's dangerous. I wanna know what time ya get back too, walking ya back home too. Don't forget that I'm ya body guard too."
Levy had a small tint of pink going on right now and her mind was flailing inside, she wanted to wiggle it off, but she didn't want to give him a weird impression.
"Umm... in the early afternoon, about 4ish… "She said as she began to slowly step her way to her bedroom again, trying not to look at him in the eye.
"Good, just wait for me at the gate of where ya work. I'll be there waitin'"
"Ok-okay," she said with a bit of hesitation as her face went flushed and she entered her room and closed the door. She still didn't know if he liked her or just showing concern for his only support. She was really conflicted on her feelings for the man too, she didn't know if it was love or it was just awkwardness. She quickly slipped off from her night wear and put on her home clothes, which was a rather plain baby blue dress. It wasn't poufy either, it was just used a lot at home and she didn't mind it getting it dirty while doing some of her chores.
She left the room and looked around as to what she could do first; she knew she had to feed her stingy horse, see if he was willing to go out for a ride too. Once she got to the living room, she noticed Gajeel had already gone outside; he was scaling the place up for the future to be small farm in front of her home. She tried to slip by to get to the shed as she was then stopped by a large hand on her wrist.
"Wait up shorty, wonderin' about if you had some tools meant for farmin'. If it's fine with you, I want to take off some of the trees in the way of the potential farmin' space and make an irrigation system from the river nearby." Gajeel spoke as he let go of her wrist. It was soft like before.
"Yeah, it's in the shed, I was about to go there just now. I need to do some chores before I get to work. I'll call you when I leave, but otherwise I will show you where they are" she said with a small grin, she didn't expect to be caught passing by, but it was meant to happen considering she didn't show him much of her place yet.
"Come on!" she said with a smile, slightly forcing herself to do it as Gajeel followed. She led him in through the gate and showed him the small stable inside with the aged horse, food nearby, and the empty space with the only farming tools she had.
"This corner seems like a very good place to make another fireplace for my smithin', mind if I change it here later on?" he asked again as he grabbed the handles to the hoe, pick, axe, and plow. "Oh and can yer horse plow too?" he wondered.
"Yes that seems fine, and if you can get him to do it. He is a stubborn fool, he won't let me ride him when I want to!" she said as her cheeks puffed as she neared the horse. The old horse gave off a loud snort with some clinking of his hooves in laughter to what she said as he gets pet on the head by his owner.
"Trust me; I will get this boy to do what he needs to do! Gihi!" he chuckled while nearing the horse too, giving it a pat on the side of its neck. "Won't you boy?" he said glaring at the horse in the eye. The horse clopped its hoof and neighed moving its head up and down in agreement, he seemed very intimidated by the man already.
Levy had bent down to get a haystack on the other side of the horse's corner while Gajeel scared the poor horse. She gave out a loud grunt as she managed to carry the haystack, almost the size of her, over her shoulder as she stumbled to get back up and she moved slowly over to the horse. Gajeel turned to see the struggling woman lunge the hay over to the horse. He was definitely surprised to how much she could carry. Still, he had to help her out as he grabbed the wires from the stack and lifted it off her shoulder easily.
"I'm here for a reason ya know. Gihihi!" Gajeel laughed as he tossed the stack in front of the horse, taking off the wires with it as the horse began munching away.
Levy puffed her cheeks as her face went a bit pink with frustration and her fists on her sides. "I didn't need your help! It was my chores you dummy!" she huffed.
"Why does she look cute when she is mad?" Gajeel thought as his mouth went agape, nothing coming out as Levy just stared in anger. He had to gather up his thoughts; he got distracted by the pink shrimp and laughed again.
"Gihi! Sure shrimp, but that's not going to stop me from helping you." He replied patting her head as Levy just stood there with puffed cheeks.
Finally Levy popped a bit, hitting Gajeel on the chest with her fists, sadly enough it didn't do anything to harm the large man, who was having a very large smirk while looking down at her. "Stupid! Stupid! Stupid!"
"Well, I'm going to start doing some of those tasks ya just gave me. I'll stop when ya bouta leave." He said walking over to get the tools to set them outside the shed and walked back in to get the horse ready for the job. Levy just watched in amazement as the horse allowed Gajeel to do what he needed, even get him out of his stable and being led out with the reigns.
"Gajeel, we'll be having lunch before I leave too! So I'll call you over when it's ready!" she said as she saw Gajeel leave the stable and out to the open plot. Levy just proceeded onto doing her chores, majorly laundry.
"Sure short stuff" he said back as he led the horse to the open field to let him eat some of the grass that's out there for the time being as he clears the place a bit. He began taking away a tree in the way, a small square of land will do for pipsqueak, if she wants more then he'll just make it bigger. He began hitting the blade of the axe on the trunk of the tree easily, already getting down to halfway. It was like mashing potatoes for him, and the axe didn't way as much as he thought it would. Only the hardest part is getting the trunk out, with its roots in the earth who knows how deep.
It was very hard for Gajeel to sweat from small things like chopping a tree own and loosen up the dirt around the stump, but the more the sun went up and got in his face and warmed up the area, he was doomed for it. His shirt was slowly getting damp and sticking onto his body like a second skin. Once the soil was loose enough to be pulled by the horse, he wrapped it with the rope he went over to retrieve and tied it to the horses reign.
"Okay buddy, now you'll be pullin' this stump" he snickered patting the horses neck, telling him to start moving. The horse struggled a bit, but after there were some loud cracking of the roots, it easily came off and the horse stopped.
"Nice job old fart!" he said rubbing the horses snout and untying the horse again to let him roam around again and get a drink from the bucket sitting on the top of a well. Gajeel got the remaining part of the stump by the roots and dragged it out to the edge of the shed where he had put the now chopped down tree by.
It was around 10am and the sun was starting to get hot, but Gajeel wouldn't stop working until he got some of the land plowed or even all of it. He got the plow and lined it up to where he would start off and went back to the horse and led him to it. He managed to get all the tying done and set while he held onto the handles of the plow to straighten it up. Gajeel whistled this time and the horse began to move forward slowly while the roots of the grass popped and the soil moved to the side. Gajeel helped push, one horse couldn't do all the work; he had to make sure the plow didn't get stuck or stray off its planned path.
He counted 40 steps until he chose to turn and make the next row, each one taking about 20 hot minutes. Levy at the time had just finished washing up the clothing and was about to hang them on the side of the house, opposite of where the shed was. Levy had managed to glance over to where Gajeel was at, seeing that he was barely on his second row and nearing her. She could see how much his shirt had stuck onto his body; he could see every detail and receive of where his muscles were. She was very weak in the knees for those types of muscles, not many men in the area had them. They'd be either sticks or giant walking fat men who gloat on their successes.
Gajeel stopped on the second turn, wiping off the sweat that had just formed on his brow and he went to get a drink of water and wet his face, it was very hot under the sun and especially where he was at. Levy saw this happen and it was like in the romance books that she managed to sneak by from Makarov. The very cliché moments where the damsel saw the man do something that would drive her to the edge and this was happening to Levy as she turned tomato pink and hurried to hang the clothing. She wanted to get inside soon as possible so that he wouldn't see her and to get food started, she had to leave soon.
Gajeel wiped his face off from the excess water and then just saw something small dash by and go inside the house with the shut of the door following. Gajeel went back to plowing the ground and when he nearly got halfway done he stripped off his shirt and put it around his neck, he just couldn't stand the sun at the time but he trudged on. He managed to finish half before Levy called him in for lunch. He saw the pipsqueak cover her face seeing him shirtless while he untied the horse and led him back to his stable to rest up and drink.
He couldn't help but smirk on his way back while the shrimp was at the table with the food set up and her blush slowly faded but then went up again as he wiped himself off with his shirt.
"Why don't you change?!" Levy said with hesitation as she had her eyes closed with pink all over her face.
"Cause I'm fuckin' starving!" He laughed as he shoved down his lunch in his mouth.
"Well you better clean yourself up a little before we go! I don't want to go walking with a stinky man!" she said shoving a spoon full in her mouth too.
"Sure, sure" Gajeel scoffed as the two remained eating in silence. After the two finished, Levy went to clean dishes and then to her room to change for her job as Gajeel went over to the river to wash up. He needed privacy too you know!
Levy waited out of the door for Gajeel, holding her satchel to her side as she looked around for him.
"Where is he?" she said starting to feel impatient as she then jumped from feeling a hand on her shoulder. "How when the door is closed?!" she thought turning her head back just to see Gajeel laughing loudly.
"You idiot!" she said with a sigh of relief.
"Calm down shrimp! Gihihi! I got in through the window to change, don't wanna stink ya up for work by wearing sweaty clothes now do we?" he said with a smirk.
"If you say so, but let's get going or else I will be late!" she said with a tug on his shirt in the direction of the dirt path. He couldn't help but feel his neck heat up from how cute the action Levy did towards him and how this dress of hers she wore to work made it even cuter. It was an orange dress with long sleeves.
"Right shrimp" he said following along, trying to get the heat feeling on his neck off.
Well there you guys have it!
And terribly sorry about this being late, you know 4th of July… and then I will have a week trip soon, so I will try making it up with this big one (another 1000 words more than the last chapter) xD Oh and I am thinking the next chapter will be coming out late as well, since I will be getting back when I'm supposed to post it XD
